Portraits of Albinism: Letting An Inner Light Shine

Zawia Kassim, 12, of Kigoma Region, is photographed at the Kabanga Protectorate Center in Tanzania. She would like to be a teacher someday.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Gilbert Andrews, 15, wants to become a lawyer to help protect the rights of people with albinism. "Some educated people know we are real people, but others call us bad names," he says. "We faced the public with being discriminated against in class. Teachers put us in the back and said that people with albinism cannot be educated."

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Helen Sekalima, 40, with her baby, Jessica, two months old, at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. Of Helen's nine children, three of them have albinism. "The people in the village said that the children are not normal people, that they are like devils," she said. Her husband was attacked protecting their oldest son from attackers, and now has limited mobility in his arm.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Angel Salvatory, 17, has skin cancer and has been living in the center for four years. Her maternal grandparents were killed protecting her from an attack led by her own father.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Salvatory, with her half-brother Ezekiel, 1, and mother Bestida, whom she had not seen in the four years she has lived away from home. She moved to the center after her own father led a group of men to attack her.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Eumen, 13, hasn't seen his mother in the four years he has lived at the center. "I wish to go home, even for one day," he says. "One day would be enough for me." His mother protected him from attack by a group of men and lost the use of her arm from an injury she suffered in the attack.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Lightness, age unknown, holding baby Jessica, 3 months old. Lightness was abandoned at the center, and Jessica came with her mother after they were threatened with attack. Jessica's older brothers also live at the center since the eldest was physically attacked at their home.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Abdulswamad, 7 months, was brought to the center by his mother, who was afraid they would be attacked.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Lukia, 50, lives at the center after killings near her village made it unsafe for her to stay there.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Ellen Abeli, 20, hopes to become a journalist. She has been at the Kabanga Protectorate Center since 2008.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Musa, age unknown, was abandoned at the center. He is believed to be from the region bordering Burundi, where a black market in body parts of albinos is thriving.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Yonge, 4, was abandoned by her parents at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. A local reverend hopes to adopt her but has not been able to take her home because of bureaucratic delays.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

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Photographers look for beauty in unexpected places. And in parts of Tanzania — a society that gravely mistreats albinos — photojournalist Jacquelyn Martin set out to show how beautiful she thinks they are.

Tanzanians with albinism endure a particularly cruel fate. Not only do they suffer from sun sensitivity and vision problems, but they are also hunted by witch doctors who believe their body parts can be used for magic.

Since 2006, more than 71 albinos have been killed in Tanzania so their bodies could be made into potions.

"They go through daily prejudice and hardship," Martin says on the phone. "People around them don't think of them as humans."

Tanzania — which is thought to be the birthplace of the genetic mutation — has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world. Albinos account for nearly 1 in every 1,400 people, compared to about 1 in 20,000 worldwide. And because of social discrimination, albinos tend to marry each other, thereby passing their genes to their children.

Martin is a photojournalist for The Associated Press who normally covers politics, but she has a personal interest in issues of race and identity. Every year she takes personal time to tell long-form stories, and this year she traveled to Tanzania for three-and-a-half weeks. She visited the Kabanga Protectorate Center — a sort of boarding school for people with albinism — for her project Tribe of Ghosts.

Martin worked with a translator to interview her subjects and take their portraits. In some cases, it was the first time they had ever had their photo taken.

Boys hang out by the gate guarding the Kabanga Protectorate Center, as a local village girl walks by outside, in Kabanga, Tanzania.
Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin
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Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

Boys hang out by the gate guarding the Kabanga Protectorate Center, as a local village girl walks by outside, in Kabanga, Tanzania.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Martin

"In society, they are reviled, so they really responded to being treated with dignity and being photographed in a respectful, humanitarian manner," she says.

"I really think there is something special in this collection of portraits where their inner beauty shines through," she adds. "We would talk about their experiences ... and they would laugh and love that they were in the pictures."

The Kabanga center and others like it protect people with albinism but also isolate them. Martin told me there is not much of a plan for the albinos beyond primary education. Because they can't live safely in Tanzanian society, she says, their prospects for marriage, a career and a normal life are unclear.

Martin plans to give prints to every person she photographed.

"Because they are not treated like humans, because they are not treated with respect, I hope they have a little something that helps them reflect on the beauty in themselves — to help them going forward."

Martin collaborated with the Asante Mariamu organization, a northern Virginia group dedicated to raising awareness of people with albinism in Tanzania.